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Savannah Diebold
Humanities 1100-006
Dr. Moffett, Instructor
November 6, 2014
FINAL CULTURAL REVIEW:
MUSICAL CRITIQUE

1) What play, musical or opera did you attend? {Include name, location, name of company
or performers, & director} {No High School productions are permitted}

-Man of La Mancha, Performed at the Hale Center Theater in Orem Utah. Director is
unknown.
2) Give a summary or description of the play you saw. {At least 150 words}

- The play is based off of a very popular play called Don Quixote. It is a play within a play
about an old man who went kind of mad. He tried to tax the church and so they arrested him. The
play takes place in a sort of dungeon cell with other prisoners, as he awaits the Spanish
Inquisition. To try and save all of his belongings, from his plays, and himself from the prisoners
he puts on a play for them. This entertainment he provides it basically a plea deal with the
prisoners, so hopefully persuade them to spare him. His servant and he go on adventures as a
knight. He ends up falling in love with a prostitute, which he sees as a beautiful maiden. His
family is worried about him ruining the family name by going out and acting delirious, so the
priest and the doctor go out to capture him. When they finally do convince Don Quixote that he

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is not a knight, he becomes sick. At the end of his death he remembers again that he was a
knight.
3) Discuss the quality of the performance. Include a discussion of the costumes, lighting,
acting quality, direction, sound quality, and any mistakes or other problems that
detracted from the performance. {250 words}

- The play took place in a small theater in which there was only one scene set up the
whole time. The actors had to change a few things to change the location of the story
throughout the play. The only thing about this small setting that bothered me was how the
stairways were used in the stage, so you were basically trapped in your seats, you couldnt
leave. I know you arent supposed to get up to do anything until intervention but it bothered
me that I felt trapped. The costume and make up was really good. All of the prisoners looked
really dirty, and Don Quixote looks identical to what he should look like. He had a white
beard and mustache with a knights helmet, later changed to a shaving bin. For such a small
theater the lighting and scenery used was very good, similar to any other theater performance
with strong lighting with lots of shadows.
The costumes were simple, but seemed realistic for that time period. All of the makeup
and costumes presented the time period very well. I didnt pay too much attention to the
costumes and decorations because I was so fixated on the actors. Their singing was amazing.
I really enjoyed hearing the beautiful musical talents.
4) Discuss the social & philosophical issues the play addresses and indicate what
answers/conclusions were reached (i.e. what was the argument of the work?). {250
words}

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-When the main character fell in love with the prostitute, which he saw as a beautiful
maiden, it introduced a social concept to the performance. Some people believe that if you
are homeless or a prostitute, you are the scum of the earth. They believe that your life isnt
worth much, because of their personal belief that these people are just lazy and wont get a
real job. I do not share these opinions. However, it is an undying issue because some people
dont care enough about them to help them when others want to do as much as they can to
help these people out, by taxes. This is why it is such a huge issue. In the play it mentions
this social issue that these people arent worth anything and he says that no, she is worth
something, she is important.
He basically says that I care about her so much that I see completely pass (literally) her
situation and only look at her as a person. Everyone saw her as a gross whore and he saw
her as a beautiful maiden. In return this boosted her confidence in the end, you get to hear
her story of how she became a prostitute. The heart touching performance made us fall in
love with her as well. It sent a message to basically love one another, because you never
know what people have gone through or what happened to them that lead them to their
circumstances.
5) If this was a musical or opera, discuss the role that music played in the work; OR if not
a musical or opera, how was mood and/or emotion expressed, conveyed and/ or supported
in the play? {150 words}

- The fact that the production was so small, and the theater was small, the vocal performances
made all the difference. Their acting also made a huge impact on my opinion of this production.

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It was such a great performance that everything else didnt really matter. I really liked the
emotion showed throughout the vocal performances, and the talent performed. It is complicated
to explain how well their vocal talent and acting talents were. It made the story more personal,
more relatable. When the woman was singing about her life, I started crying. It was a little
embarrassing, but it was so good, so touching, so real that it brought me to tears. The kind of
emotion she showed in her vocal performance was a huge contributor to me crying.
6) What did you find out about the background of the work or playwright? [look it up on
the web] {100 words}

- The play is based off of a Spanish novel written by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. On the
internet it said that he was often compared to Shakespeare. He was most famous for his writings
in the golden age. The play has been performed in multiple different languages due to its
popularity. I also found out: Cervantes's novel, pubd. in 2 parts (1605, 1615), has been the
inspiration of many mus. works. Operas on the subject have been comp. by Frtsch, Conti,
Boismortier, Paisiello, Piccinni, Salieri, Hubaek, Garca, Mendelssohn, Mercadante, Donizetti,
Macfarren, Clay, Jaques-Dalcroze, Heuberger, and Falla. Incidental mus. to a play by D'Urfey
was written by Purcell and Eccles, 16945.
7) What choices do you think the Director made about how to present this performance to
the audience? Do you agree with that interpretation or could there have been a better
way? {150 word minimum}
-The director had to deal with such a small space so he had to make judgment calls on

the sets. He had simple ways to change the scene of the play. There were holes in the stage
for poles, the poles were taken out during some scenes to be used as props. Then they were

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used to change the scenery by creating a door. Multiple props had to be brought in to give the
effect of a different scenery which caused crowding. As far as the interpretation of the
performance, I wouldnt know if it was good or bad because it was the first time seeing the
musical. I am not aware of any other interpretations other than the one I saw. I enjoyed the
way everyone was portrayed and it felt accurate to what I learned in my Spanish class.
8) Would you recommend this performance to others? Why or why not? {100 words}

-Yes. I would recommend this actors and the director, just not the setting. It was a little too
small for me. It was a small production, but imagine that one performed in a larger theater might
be slightly more exciting. The story itself is just magnificent and brilliant, so yes I would
recommend that everyone sees Don Quixote or Man of La Mancha. The actors had pure talent
and beautiful vocal performances. I enjoyed all of the singing and the comical action all wrapped
up into one production. Other than the small space, which caused me to feel Closter phobic, the
production was wonderful! I would really like to see a larger production of Don Quixote
someday.
9) What was your personal reaction to this performance? Would you enjoy attending this
type of event again? Why or why not? {100 words}

-I really liked the actors performance and the musical performance as well. The main
female character had a really beautiful voice and her performance really spoke to me.
Cervantes servant was so funny, he created a great comical aspect to the production. The final
scene was so powerful and the vocal performance was outstanding that it ended the
performance so well. Even though I had trouble with the small area, I really enjoyed the

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performance.